Urinary incontinence is a significant health concern worldwide. In the urology field, needles, suture passers and ligature carriers are utilized in a variety of procedures, many of which are designed to treat incontinence. Examples of such surgical instruments included Stamey needles, Raz needles, and Pereyra needles. See Stamey, Endoscopic Suspension of the Vesical Neck for Urinary Incontinence in Females, Ann. Surgery, pp. 465-471, October 1980; and Pereyra, A Simplified Surgical Procedure for the Correction of Stress Incontinence in Women, West. J. Surg., Obstetrics & Gynecology, pp. 243-246, July-August 1959.
A pubovaginal sling procedure is a surgical method involving the placement of a sling to stabilize or support the bladder neck or urethra. There are a variety of different sling procedures. Descriptions of different sling procedures are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,112,344; 5,611,515; 5,842,478; 5,860,425; 5,899,909; 6,039,686; 6,042,534 and 6,110,101.
Some pubovaginal sling procedures extend a sling from the rectus fascia in the abdominal region, to a position below the urethra, and back again to the rectus fascia. Although serious complications associated with sling procedures are infrequent, they do occur. Complications include urethral obstruction, prolonged urinary retention, bladder perforations, damage to surrounding tissue, and sling erosion.
The Tension-free Vaginal Tape (TVT) procedure (available from Ethicon, of NJ.) utilizes a PROLENE™. nonabsorbable, polypropylene mesh. Problems with the TVT procedure are documented in the literature and patents. Problems associated with the TVT procedures and the like are acknowledged and described in PCT publication nos. PCT WO 00/74613 and PCT WO 00/74594, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,273,852; 6,406,423; and 6,478,727, and published U.S. Pat. Application Nos. 2002-0091373-A1, 2002-0107430-A1, 2002-0099258-A1 and US-2002-0099259-A1. A cadaver study indicated that the TVT needle is placed in close proximity to sensitive tissue such as superficial epigastric vessels, inferior epigastric vessels, the external iliac vessel and the obturator. See, Walters, Mark D., Percutaneous Suburethral Slings: State of the Art, presented at the conference of the American Urogynecologic Society, Chicago (October 2001) and PCT International Publication No. WO 02/26108.
Additional sling procedures are disclosed in Published U.S. Pat. Appl. No. US 2001/0018549A1, and PCT Publication Nos. WO 02/39890 and WO 02/069781.
A significant percentage of pubovaginal sling procedures are conducted after previous pelvic surgery. A pubovaginal sling procedure can be particularly challenging if the patient has scarring as a result of previous pelvic surgeries or other anatomical problems. The additional complications presented by significant scarring present surgeons with a greater surgical challenge and may lead some surgeons to forego an otherwise beneficial sling procedure. Unfortunately, this reduces a patient's options for treating incontinence.
Published U.S. Pat. Appl. No. 2002/0099260 discloses an implantable device or tape for use in correcting urinary incontinence. The tape includes sprayed polypropylene fibers that result in a strong implantable device. The tape also has a silicone-coated portion and tapered free ends. The procedure utilizes an EMMET™ needle that includes an eyelet. To create the eyelet, the distal portion of the EMMET™ needle is enlarged. A surgical procedure using an EMMET™ needle is believed to be described in the French publication D. Dargent, S. Bretones, P. George, and G. Mellier, Pose d'un ruban sous uretral oblique par voie obturatrice dans le traitement de l'incontinence urinaire feminine, Gynecol. Obstet. Fertil. 2002; 30: 576-582.
In the procedure described in U.S. Pat. Appl. No. 2002/0099260, an incision is made in the perineal skin facing the obturator and in the groin. The Emmet needle is first inserted through the cutaneous incision. The EMMET™ needle is first introduced perpendicular to the perineum for about 15 mm (passing through the internal obturator muscle as far as just outside the ischiopubic branch). The EMMET™ needle is then allowed to describe its curvature. The free end of the tape is then slipped into the eyelet of the needle. The needle/tape connection is thus reversible as one merely needs to unthread the tape from the eyelet to separate the tape from the needle. Separation of the tape and needle while both are within the body is undesirable as it would require the needle to be repassed through the body.
The needle with the tape extending through the eyelet is then pulled back though the skin incision. The eyelet and threaded tape present a sudden discontinuity encountered by the tissue that can make tape and needle passage inconvenient and unnecessarily irritative or traumatic to tissue. Additionally, the final placement of the sling may not be optimum in this procedure.